


Give Zote A Chance

by Schnikeys_Discuss (Schnikeys)



Series: Clockie's Meta [10]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Analysis, Archived from radioactivesupersonic Blog, Character Analysis, Gen, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27055702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schnikeys/pseuds/Schnikeys_Discuss
Summary: "Obviously no one is under any obligation to like Zote the Mighty as a character but I think it’s worth examiningwhypeople are so quick to write off Zote as awful. Because it feels like kind of a meme that goes around and it makes me a little uncomfortable some of the way I hear people talk about Zote."
Series: Clockie's Meta [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974223
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Give Zote A Chance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClockworkRainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkRainbow/gifts).



Obviously no one is under any obligation to like Zote the Mighty as a character but I think it’s worth examining _why_ people are so quick to write off Zote as awful. Because it feels like kind of a meme that goes around and it makes me a little uncomfortable some of the way I hear people talk about Zote.

Guy doesn’t actually do anything in the game that warrants Ghost’s retaliation or longstanding enmity. The worst thing he ever does to you is provoked by Ghost doing something pretty awful to him: smacking him around the Colosseum of Fools in a player-favoring hopeless boss fight.

Zote doesn’t even want to _be_ there. He’s imprisoned before the match. He _can’t actually hurt you_. The audience is laughing uproariously at him which- these guys _also_ laugh if Ghost gets killed, or that time in one of the later trials when two gladiators are skewered by the floor turning into a spike trap underneath them. The gladiator audience are a bunch of awful people with a terrible sense of humor.

And Zote’s revenge is…. he talks to the girl who was obsessed with a shallow idea of Ghost, and she latches onto him because she’s desperate and lonely and only crushing on an idealized image of him that he can’t actually live up to. Especially since if you defeat Grey Prince four times, she abandons him.

Grey Prince? Not his fault. The Eternal Ordeal? Not his fault.

About the one thing you can chalk up to Zote is he’s consistently rude and even then, like… he doesn’t have any actual influence. Ostensibly he told ‘everyone’ in Dirtmouth Ghost was bad but Elderbug, Sly, Iselda, Cornifer? Have nothing to say about it. In fact I don’t think Elderbug ever even acknowledges Zote verbally.

And so much of what Zote says, more than actually dismissing Ghost or identifying any quality about them besides that they’re a child and sort of messy, just betrays that he’s miserable, isolated, appears to have been abused and/or neglected by both his parents (which is a major theme in the story and pretty damn likely, if his being roped in with Ghost and Hornet as one of the three planned playable characters is to insinuate he’s yet another child of the Pale King). Heck, if Ghost and Zote are at least half-siblings than the most he directly retaliates against Ghost for attacking him in the Colosseum is an indirect comment edgewise about how you shouldn’t be under any obligation to forgive your siblings, say, a ‘brother’ of yours that might be right there listening.

No amount of Zote being rude to Ghost changes the fact that Ghost could probably kill him in a second and he is obviously aware of that. He’s terrified and refuses to admit it. His blustering is super transparent, and rooted in fear; specifically, he’s afraid of admitting he owes anyone anything because he seems to think it’s going to be used to hurt him.

Which, consider the culture around the Pale King. Consider what the Pale King _did_ to his children. Consider how the City of Tears, containing the monument to the Pure Vessel, who had no choice but to assume their duty, contains an encounter with an especially miserable Zote who complains harshly about how devotion to one’s “duties” is a bad thing.

Zote, who isn’t anything a vessel “should” be- who has a voice, who is especially focused on the concept of a name, a title, recognition, glory. That he made his nail himself, that _it_ has a name, that _he_ has a name and a title both and you should use _both of them_ , don’t you dare ignore him- who doesn’t have anyone in his life to make a promise to other than himself.

This isn’t a “if you dislike Zote you’re awful and a terrible person” post because again, people are allowed to like and dislike characters for any reason. I think most of what I was reacting to with this post is I feel like I see this attitude that Zote deserves maltreatment or that Ghost is right to hurt him, when the entire game cannot have possibly made it louder or clearer that Zote has had a terrible life in every possible regard, and that he actually doesn’t have, at any point in the game, the power to even slightly impede Ghost, much less hurt them.

And he’s someone with clumsy jumps and no real combat skills, so, like… how the hell is he surviving, much less successfully navigating to most late-game areas and back again? He seems to imply he’s literally immune to the Radiance, which, _what the hell_? Also, is the guy _okay_ considering he’s advocating to _never dream at all_?

**Author's Note:**

> Analysis originally found here: <https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/183222233755/obviously-no-one-is-under-any-obligation-to-like>


End file.
